Ahead of the visit of a joint investigation team from Pakistan to probe the terror attack in Pathankot, the Congress on Friday alleged lack of coordination within the Government and Central agencies with the Defence Minister, the Home Minister and his Minister of State speaking in different voices.
Senior party spokesman Anand Sharma said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should have ensured coordination by convening a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security before External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's visit to Pokhara in Nepal for the SAARC Foreign Ministers Meeting.
The announcement about the Pakistani team's visit had come after Swaraj's meeting with Pakistan Prime Minister's Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz in Pokhara on Thursday. "There is no coordination in this Cabinet," said Sharma, who has just been reelected as Rajya Sabha member from Himachal Pradesh.
The former Union Minister said that the Defence Minister, the Home Minister and his Minister of State are speaking in different voices on the issue. He was reacting to reports quoting the Home Minister that he had come to know through the media that the Pakistani joint investigation team is coming. "The Home Minister is not aware of JIT. The Defence Minister is saying a different thing," pointed Sharma.
Seeking to know Government's roadmap on Pakistan, Sharma said that Congress was not opposed to engagement with Islamabad. He, however, said that Pakistan had not fulfilled its commitments in the wake of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack.
He wondered what understanding had been reached during meeting of NSAs of India and Pak in Bangkok that convinced the PM to go to lahore.